Stealth Antennas

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by

Steve Nichols, G0KYA

20
B
SG

Published by the Radio Society of Great Britain,

3 Abbey Court, Priory Business Park, Bedford MK44 3WH, UK

First published 2010

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© Radio Society of Great Britain, 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the Radio Society of Great Britain.
©

Publisher’s note
The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and not necessarily those
of the RSGB. While the information presented is believed to be correct, the author,
the publisher and their agents cannot accept responsibility for consequences arising
from any inaccuracies or omissions.

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 Contents

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1 Introduction 1

2 Electrical and other safety issues 21

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3 Using your roof space 29

4 Stealth antennas for the loft 37

5 External antennas 75

6 Over-the-roof stealth antennas 81

7 Examples of external stealth antennas 99

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8 Let’s get really stealthy 123

9 Commercial stealth antennas 139

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10 Avoiding interference and EMC issues 161

11 Maximising efficiency 177

Appendix 1 Glossary and abbreviations 184

Appendix 2 Other RSGB antenna books 197

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Index 201
©
 4
Stealth antennas for the loft

12
THE SIMPLEST (and probably cheapest)
antenna you can build is a loft-mounted
half-wave dipole (Fig 4.1). This is simply
cut for your band of choice according to
the chart and fed with 50Ω coax.

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THE HALF-WAVE DIPOLE
A half-wave dipole is cut to length Fig 4.1: The half-wave dipole is a simple antenna,
but very effective.
according to the formula: total length (in
feet) = 468/f, where f is the centre frequency in MHz. The metric formula is
total length (in metres) = 142.65/f. Typical dipole lengths for the bands from
40m to 6m are given in Table 4.1.
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When I was first licensed I strung up a half-wave dipole for 10m in my attic.
It worked a treat with a very low SWR across most of the band. What’s more it
worked stations with many contacts being made across Europe and the USA.
Just about any type of insulated wire will work and you don’t need end
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insulators – just use a staple gun to tack the wire to the wooden rafters and let
the final four inches or so dangle free away from the wood. This is a safety
feature and prevents the antenna arcing to the woodwork, although that is very
unlikely to happen if you keep the power levels down. I usually leave my power
setting at about 25W and seldom use more than 50W. Do not use a linear
amplifier!
A so-called ‘chocolate block’ electrical connector will let you connect the
ends of the dipole to
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your 50Ω coax, which

Frequency (MHz) Total length (ft in) (metres)
can then be led
7.100 65ft 11in 20.09m
vertically away at
10.100 46ft 4in 14.12m
right angles to the
14.175 33ft 0.24in 10.06m
dipole to prevent RF
©

18.100 25ft 10in 7.88m

pick-up and help keep
21.225 22ft 1in 6.72m
the antenna balanced.
24.940 18ft 9in 5.72m
If possible use a balun
28.500 16ft 5in 5.00m
or choke as described
29.500 15ft 10in 4.84m
earlier.
50.200 9ft 4in 2.87m
Once you have
installed the antenna Table 4.1: Half-wave dipole lengths.

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Stealth Antennas

check the SWR in the centre of the band. Now check it at the band edges too. If
the SWR is better at the lower edge of the band than the top end this means it is
too long. If it is better at the top end of the band it is too short. If it is too long
don’t cut it – just fold the ends back on themselves and either twist the wires
together or use nylon cable clips. Electrically it will appear ‘shorter’ to your
radio and have the same effect as cutting it.
Don’t be surprised to find that you have to shorten the antenna slightly once
you have it in position. The PVC covering of the wire and capacitative end

12
effects will make it appear too long electrically and it is easier to shorten an
antenna than lengthen it.
One you have the lowest SWR at or around the centre of the band, stop – as
long as it is less than about 2:1 you will be fine. In reality you should be able to
get it to 1.5:1 or better.
You may struggle to get the 30m and 40m versions in your loft – they may

20
be too long. If that is the case see the section on the zig-zag dipole later on. Just
about all of the others should fit within an average-sized loft.
It is best to mount the centre of the antenna as high as you can in the apex of
the roof. This helps keep it away from electrical wiring and copper water tanks
that might otherwise affect its tuning. It also helps with your radiated signal as
it is the current portion of the antenna that does all the work and the current
maximum on a half wave dipole is in the centre.
The dipole legs can either be tacked along the central apex with a staple gun
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or brought down in an inverted-V configuration - see next section.
A half-wave dipole is strictly speaking a monoband antenna, although a
40m (7MHz) version can be used on 21MHz (15m) albeit with a slightly higher
SG

SWR. You can use a dipole on something other than its design frequency, but
you will need to use an ATU and the performance will not be very good. But as
a ‘get you going’ compromise it will work. As explained in our later chapter on
matched and unmatched losses using a long run of coax with a high SWR will
result in high losses and is not recommended.
If you really want to use a single dipole in the loft on a band other than that
of its design frequency you are better off feeding it with 300 or 450Ω ribbon
cable, but this is less easy to handle than coax and must be kept away from
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metallic objects. Your dipole then becomes a doublet. If you do want to

experiment with this, cut your dipole for the lowest frequency you want to use
and then use it with open wire feeder on this and higher frequencies.
There are other coax-fed multi-band alternative that you can read
about later.
©

THE INVERTED-V
The dipole doesn’t have to be laid out in a straight line. You can, in fact,
arrange one as an inverted-V with the centre at the apex of your roof and the
legs coming down at an angle. In fact, there are a number of advantages in
doing this. The first is that an inverted-V loses some of its directional

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 4. Stealth antennas for the loft

characteristics. A dipole usually has its maximum radiation at

right angles to the wire with little radiation off its ends, but
when arranged as an inverted-V it becomes slightly more
omnidirectional, as shown in Fig 4.2.
You will find that as an inverted-V a dipole will need to be
up to about 4% shorter than if it is in a straight line. Don’t
worry about this. Cut it according to the chart and fold it back
once installed to bring it to as close to a 1:1 SWR as you can.

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Secondly, the impedance of a half wave dipole in free space
is more like 70 - 75Ω, not the 50Ω our radio expects. This can
result in an SWR of about 1.4:1 – 1.5:1. By narrowing the angle Fig 4.2(a): You can see that
between the legs the impedance changes and the SWR is reduced when erected in a straight
to closer to 1:1. line the dipole is quite
directional.
But, and it is a big but, the angle between the legs of a dipole

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should not fall below about 70 - 80°. For best results with this
type of antenna, the apex angle should be kept between 90 and
110°. Less than this and the radiators start to become parallel
to each other and signal cancelling will start to occur. Above
about 120° the antenna starts looking like a standard dipole,
minimising any of the feed impedance and shortening effects.
The optimum apex angle is 90 - 120°, but it isn’t that critical.
Some pitched roofs are actually very steep and you should
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check to see what the angle is on yours. If you wish to fit an
inverted-V you might be better off putting each leg across the
side of the roof rafters to reduce the angle. That is, install it an
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Fig 4.2(b): But when erected

angle with the rafters. as an inverted-V you gain a
Inverted-V dipoles for several different bands can be couple of S-points (10 - 12dB)
connected to the same feeder, as shown in Fig 4.3 to provide a in the directions in which the
multi-band antenna. dipole wires point.
R
©

Fig 4.3: This five-band loft-mounted antenna has been used at two locations
with great results.

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Stealth Antennas

MULTI-BAND PARALLEL-FED DIPOLES WITH ZIG-ZAG (NON-

INDUCTIVE) LOADING
This antenna has nothing new about its design, but it does bring together
quite a few useful ideas and characteristics. These are:

• Fully no-tune antenna system for five popular HF bands;

• Suitable for SWLs, QRP, M3 licensees and PSK31 operating plus
occasional use up to 100W, but watch out for RFI at high powers. Do not

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use a linear!
• Uses non-inductive (zig-zag) loading for 40m.

Your actual mileage may vary depending on the type of loft you have, the
tile type and the amount of metalwork in your attic. I have used this antenna at
two different modern semi-detached and detached houses and it has always

20
worked well. What surprises me is just how well it does work – so well, in fact,
that I have yet to find another experimental indoor antenna that can beat it,
including magnetic loops, crossed field loops and EH antennas.
It has been compared with the following:

• 85ft W3EDP end-fed that went up to the top of a 60ft oak tree in my
garden with a 17ft counterpoise – the multi-band dipole beats it hands
down on 20m and up and offers much lower noise level. On 40m they
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are fairly even.
• Capco and MFJ magnetic loops mounted in the loft and outdoors at a
height of four metres – the multi-band dipole was consistently either
SG

equal or 1 - 2 S-points better.

• Commercial five-band, no counterpoise, vertical at 30ft – the multi-band
dipoles beat the vertical on 20m by 1 - 2 S-points. But the vertical beat
the dipoles on 17m on 15m by the same amount. They were very similar
on 10m, although the vertical also tuned 12m. The SWR was flatter on
the multi-band dipoles. While trying to read weak CW from the 3Y0X
Peter 1st Island (Antarctic) DXpedition signals were inaudible on the
vertical and S1 - S2 on the dipoles on 20m.
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The antenna consists of separate half-wave dipoles for 40, 20, 17 and 10m
(as shown in Fig 4.3), cut to a length of 468 (feet)/frequency. Only the resonant
dipole will accept current at the desired frequency – the others are effectively
ignored and offer a high impedance. These are fed via RG58 50Ω coax at a
©

common feedpoint at the very apex of the centre of the loft – just buy an electrical
chocolate block connector. The original version was potted in a 35mm film
canister with fibreglass resin as it was going to be put up outside.
Three or four large clip-on ferrites (of the type used to get rid of RFI) are
clipped on the coax at the feed point. This prevents interference flowing up the
outer of the coax and makes the antenna very quiet electrically. Or you can use
the choke balun described earlier.

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 4. Stealth antennas for the loft

The trick is to zig-zag the 40m dipole up and down the rafters, but only once
you have pulled the first 10ft or so of each leg out horizontally. It is the current
flowing in an antenna that does the radiating and this is concentrated towards
the middle of the dipole. In fact 70% of the radiation from a half-wave dipole
comes from half of the antenna’s total length.
You can staple the dipoles (made out of PVC-coated wire) to the rafters
with a staple gun as described earlier. Allow the ends to dangle free for about
6in to prevent end effects and RF leakage to earth via the woodwork.

12
The second trick is to make sure that each dipole is as far away from the
other as possible. This helps bring down the SWR and improves the 10m
performance dramatically. When it was originally put up all the dipoles were
bundled together and although the 10m SWR was OK it was very ‘deaf’.
Separating the dipoles made a huge difference.
The third trick is to arrange the dipoles as inverted-Vs where possible -

20
especially the 10m one – this gives good all-round performance and a mixture
of horizontal and vertical polarisation. The vertical polarisation can work well
on local contacts with amateurs using ex-CB half-wave verticals. Make sure
that the included angle between any two halves of a dipole is around 90 - 120°.
If it is smaller than this the antenna will start to cancel out its radiation as
explained earlier.
If the lengths are calculated correctly you should find the SWR less than
1.5:1 on all bands bar 15m where the dipole acts as three-half waves and the
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SWR rises to about 2:1. If not, shorten the antenna by folding the ends back
and twisting them together – but fold an equal amount at each end so as to
maintain balance.
SG

It isn’t a beam antenna, but it is very useable and lively. It is an inexpensive

antenna that your neighbours will love, as long as you keep the power levels
down a bit. I would limit your power to around 50W if possible,
preferably lower.

ADDING 80M TO MAKE A SIX-

BAND ANTENNA
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After using the antenna for a few

years my biggest bug-bear was that it
didn’t cover 80m. Yes, with an ATU you
could get the antenna to load on 80m but
the performance was down somewhat. I
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therefore looked at adding traps at the

ends of the 40m dipole and then zig-
zagging extra wire horizontally across the
inside ends of the house walls (Fig 4.4).
I had some commercial traps lying Fig 4.4: Adding a 40m trap and additional wire
around, but you could always make your means that it can work on 80m as well, but the
own. I calculated the amount of wire performance is not as good as an external antenna.

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Stealth Antennas

required using the fact that a W3DZZ trap dipole is usually 108ft long. Therefore,
I added 54 minus 33 = 21ft to each end. A quick SWR test showed that it wasn’t
enough and I had to add a further three feet to each end to bring it to resonance.
The length needed will depend on the inductance of the traps.
If you try this I suggest adding more wire than you need as it is easier to cut
wire off once installed in the loft than it is to solder wire on – safer too!
The end result was a minimum SWR of 1.2:1 at the centre of the band,
rising to 3:1 at the band ends. An ATU took care of the mismatch.

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But how did it perform on 80m? Actually, not bad – at least as good as a
1.7m Capco magnetic loop mounted outdoors and a couple of S-points down
on the 85ft W3EDP mentioned earlier. With signal levels around the UK on
80m being the usual S9+10 - 20dB the loss of 10dB or so wasn’t a problem. It
is not an effective DX antenna on 80m. When east coast US stations were just
audible on the outside end-fed they are usually absent on the loft-mounted

20
dipole. Nevertheless, it was very good for high angle NVIS-type radiation such
as is required for around UK and near-European contacts.
If you have no other option for 80m then it is worth trying.

CASE STUDY: LOFT-MOUNTED FAN DIPOLE – CHARLIE

IVERMEE, M0WYM
Charlie Ivermee, M0WYM, also uses a loft-mounted fan dipole to good
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effect. This is his story:
“No external antennas are permitted at my QTH, so my antennas were always
going to be mounted in the attic. The object of the
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exercise was to produce an aerial that would allow

me to operate from 40 to 10m, specifically 40, 20,
17, 15 and 10m. The attic allows the antenna to ‘beam’
roughly northwest / southeast and the house is some
40ft above sea level. Construction could be simplified
by the fact that I intended to run a maximum of 10W,
which means that the antenna wires could be simply
attached to the rafters.
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“The attic is just about 10m long, just short of the

length needed for a 20m dipole, so for that band
around 250mm was bent down the rafter at each end
before tuning. Obviously there is no room for a
normal 40m dipole and I made full use of a design by
©

GM4JMU that used loading coils on 40m. In my

version I have made the 40m loading coils from 29
turns of 24/02 PVC covered wire tightly wound on
40mm diameter PVC pipe. Both coils should be made
as identical as possible. The 40m dipole runs along
Charlie’s, M0WYM, dipole wire pinned the apex of the roof, below that the 20m dipole is
to the rafters. followed by the 17m, 15m and 10m dipoles.

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 4. Stealth antennas for the loft

“Rather than make my 1:1 balun I forked out

for a commercial one. In order to terminate five
dipoles I used two pieces of single-sided PCB
each drilled to accept six M4 bolts and a further
one to connect to the balun (the sixth was added
for further experimentation). Each wire making
up the dipoles was crimped which made attaching
to the bolts secure and simple.

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“Horizontal spacing between each dipole was
approximately 150mm and wires were attached
to every other rafter using plastic-headed staples.
The ends, fanning out dipoles after tuning, were
terminated with old fashioned galvanised staples. M0WYM’s 1:1 balun and PCB distribution
Please remember that I am only running a point.

20
maximum power of 10W and would not suggest
that these mounting methods be used at higher powers.
“After assembly, the antenna was tuned using an MFJ-259 SWR analyser
connected to the balun by approximately 1.5m of coax. Starting from the lowest
band each dipole was tuned for resonance. The results for the 40m dipole were
not too good with a minimum SWR of 2:1 at resonance.
“My Icom IC-703 is very happy with the antenna and, after tuning, indicates
a SWR of 1:1 on 40m, 20m, 17m and 15m. On
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10m the SWR varies from 1.3:1 at 28.100MHz
to 1.1:1 at 28.800MHz and 1.4:1 at 29.000MHz
to 1.1:1 at 29.650MHz. In spite of the fact that
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the MFJ-259 puts the SWR on 80m in the red

zone, the 703’s ATU gets it down to 1.4:1. At
50MHz the SWR is 1:1 from 50MHz to
51.6MHz.”

Results
“Reception: The antenna is lively on all the
HF bands with the exception of topband, which
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is hardly a surprise! For example, on 17m I have

heard Japan, Malta and Brazil. I have heard
Costa Rica on 80m and Cyprus on 15m. 20m
reception is very good and I got to hear some
good DX through some pretty awful pile-ups!
©

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the level of

reception using the fan dipole.
“Transmitting: I seem to be averaging 57
reports into Europe on 40m, 20m and 17m.
Countries worked include Slovenia, San
Marino, Italy, Moldova, Russia and the For the best results spread the dipole wires
Netherlands. away from each other.

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Stealth Antennas

“It does appear that the fan dipole works best on 20m, which ties in with the
flat SWR I measured on that band. Given that we are at the bottom of the
sunspot cycle I expect great things of this antenna in the next couple of years!
“On 80m the fan dipole works fine on reception and will put out a signal,
but it’s pretty useless with low signal reports so I will be looking at some other
way of working on 80m. Given that my QTH is a first-floor flat I am not too
keen on strapping the coax and loading that on 80.
“During a 6m contest in June I discovered that one of the elements of this

12
antenna radiates pretty well on that band! I have been getting reports averaging
57 and have worked stations in Spain, Italy, Croatia (via Sporadic-E) and the
UK. It looks to me as if the 17m element third harmonic resonates around
54MHz and that is near enough to put out a reasonable signal.
“I have had good reports on 10m FM from Sweden and Denmark (via
Sporadic-E again). The antenna also got me a 58 report on 12m (24MHz) from

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France, not so far but not bad considering the aerial was never intended to
work on 12m!”

USING LOADING COILS TO SHORTEN DIPOLES

So far we have looked at putting up single dipoles in the loft, and a way to
parallel feed dipoles to give you multi-band operation. We have also looked at
using zig-zag non-inductive loading to fit longer dipoles in the attic.
B
But there is another way to put dipoles in the loft for lower bands and that is
to use loading coils, which is the method used by Charlie, M0WYM. These
make the antenna look longer electrically, but do result in some loss of
SG

performance and reduced bandwidth.

A good rule of thumb for a shortened dipole is that its length in feet must
not be less than 1.25 times the wavelength in metres. So a 40m loaded dipole
shouldn’t really be less than 50ft long and an 80m antenna shouldn’t be less
than 100ft long. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that the G5RV antenna is
102ft long and works quite well on 80m where it is only about 1 - 2dB down on
a full size 80m dipole.
Other sources say that the antenna will still work reasonably well when it is
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only 1/3 of a wavelength long, which is 13m (42ft) on 40m or 26.6m (87ft) on
80m. Is your loft or attic 87 - 100ft long? No, I didn’t think so. So from the
outset we have to say that severely shortening an 80m antenna to make it fit
will result in its efficiency going down, perhaps quite dramatically. My
experience is that the 85ft W3EDP end-fed configuration over the roof works
©

better on 80m than a shortened, loaded dipole in the loft. But let’s look at what
you could do for 40m and 80m on a suck-it-and-see basis.

Half-wave loaded dipole for 40m

A full-size half-wave dipole for 40m (7.1MHz) would be 65ft 9in long
(20.09m). But let’s say that we only have 30ft to play with, which is obviously
much shorter than the optimum we require. Let’s say that we will have two legs

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 4. Stealth antennas for the loft

of 15ft each with loading coils in the

middle of each leg. So we need four
pieces of wire 7ft 6in long. Two of these
go to the centre connection and the 50Ω
coax, and then we connect our two
loading coils at the ends before
connecting the remaining pieces of wire.
First we need to work out what sort

12
of loading coils we need. There are
several ways of working out the
inductance of the two loading coils. The
first is to use an on-line calculator –
Googling “dipole loading coils” will
come up with a number of options. At

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the time of writing I used Martin
Meserve’s, K7MEM, site [1] to do the
calculations (see Fig 4.5), but do bear in
mind that URLs do change and websites
come and go. Fig 4.5: You can use an on-line calculator, like this
one from K7MEM, to build a shortened dipole.
The site says that we need two loading
coils of 24μH each. Using 2mm wire,
Martin’s site says that these can be
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formed by winding about 14 turns on to a former 110mm in diameter and 50mm
long. Since losses occur in the loading coils a physically large coil allows a
larger wire diameter, increases the Q, and improves the antenna’s radiating
SG

efficiency.
I suggest that you use enamelled copper wire for the coils to reduce losses
and plastic for the formers. Large plastic drinks bottles are free once you’ve
emptied them and will support a loading coil for indoor use with no problems.
You might be tempted to use white PVC waste pipe from your local hardware
superstore but this is only about 40mm in diameter – we want our coils bigger.
If you re-run the calculations you will find that with 40mm pipe you need
around 40 turns of wire, which increases the resistance and reduces the overall
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efficiency – that’s why you should keep your coils larger.

Any coil will end up with a self-resonant frequency (SRF) and for an optimum
design you want this frequency to be well away from the frequency upon which
you are trying to get the antenna to work - preferably double the operating
frequency. In this worked example the SRF of the 110mm coil is about 13.7MHz
©

which is fine.
The coils don’t have to be half way along the wire – you can place them
anywhere. Ideally, the loading coils should be as far from the centre feed point
as possible. But bear in mind that as the distance from the feed point increases,
the required coil size increases and the self-resonant frequency decreases until
it reaches the operating frequency, at which point the coil Q decays to zero, and
the antenna efficiency approaches zero.

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Stealth Antennas

By all means play with an online calculator like Martin’s, but for a quick
and easy solution place the coils half way along the dipole and you won’t
go wrong.

Half-wave loaded dipole for 80m

Now we have calculated how to get a 40m dipole into a space of just 30ft
what happens if we try to do the same with an 80m dipole? Well, if the
wavelength is 80m, our optimum lowest figure is 100ft. That is, if we don’t

12
want to lose too much efficiency then the antenna shouldn’t be any shorter. But
if you just have to bite the bullet and reduce the antenna size even more then go
ahead. A 30ft-long 80m loaded dipole will need two inductors of 95μH .
It will probably have limited bandwidth and will need an ATU to tune the
whole band. Nevertheless it will let you put out a signal, but don’t
expect miracles.

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From this argument you can see that there really isn’t an effective way to
build a loaded dipole for 160m (topband) that will fit in a loft. By all means try,
but I think you’ll be disappointed! Remember, you will get better results with
stealthy antennas on the higher bands.

THE SLINKY DIPOLE

One of the biggest problems facing amateurs who want to use loft-mounted
B
antennas is how do you put up a decent antenna for 80m (3.5MHz)? The trouble
is that a half-wave dipole for 80m is going to be a around 40m or 135ft long –
much longer than most attics. You can use the zig-zag loading that I mentioned
SG

earlier or you can add loading coils. But another way is to make use of a child’s
toy – the Slinky (‘Slinky’ is actually a trade mark, but there are other branded
varieties available).
If you haven’t met a Slinky before it is a coil spring that can be made to
‘walk’ down stairs and is used in schools to demonstrate the propagation of
transverse and longitudinal waves. So its seems appropriate that we can use
two Slinkies to make an HF antenna!
If you pull a Slinky out what you effectively get is
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a continuously loaded helical antenna. If you then

thread two Slinkies onto a piece of cord and feed it in
the middle you have a continuously loaded dipole.
Slinkies can be obtained in the UK from Maplin
and can also be found in most toy stores around the
©

world. A quick search on eBay showed that you can

get them for around £5 each. A quick word of warning
– don’t buy the plastic version for obvious reasons!
They are usually about 2.75in (70mm) in diameter
The Slinky can be used as an HF and consist of about 80 - 90 turns. When a Slinky is
antenna – just make sure you don’t compressed it is only 2.25in (60mm) long, but it can
buy one of the plastic versions! be stretched into a helix as long as 15ft (4.5m) in length

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 4. Stealth antennas for the loft

without deforming. An antenna made

from a Slinky is light, simple to suspend
and extend, and easy to put out of sight
when not in use.
They are usually made of stainless
steel, which is not really ideal as an
antenna material. You can get brass
versions in the US, but they are

12
expensive – more than $100 apiece.
Larry Johnston, W4SAT, reports that a
standard Slinky coil resonates as a
quarter-wave between 7 and 8MHz
when it is stretched to lengths between
5 and 15ft. To tune the Slinky within that
range you extend the coil to the Charlie, M0WYM, used a Slinky dipole in his loft,

20
but found it noisy.
approximate size, then expand or
contract it to reach the desired
resonance. At a length close to 7.5ft (2.28m) Larry says that a standard Slinky
is quarter-wave resonant on 40m. Dipoles resonant at frequencies above the 7 -
8MHz range may be created by removing turns to shorten the helices or by
shorting out turns. A 20m dipole, for example, could be made by cutting a
Slinky coil in half. It is certainly an area for experimentation.
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Charlie, M0WYM, reports that they are easily soldered using a 25W iron.
He constructed an 80m Slinky dipole for his loft and takes up the story:
“My antenna uses a total of four Slinkies with two of them soldered together.
SG

The Slinkies are supported using nylon cord and cable ties were used at the
ends to make it easier to remove. Screw-in hooks spaced at approximately 1m
intervals were used to support the Slinkies and the last turn at each end is
looped over a hook. I only run a maximum power of 10 watts and would not
suggest that these mounting methods be used at higher powers.
“The nylon cord was passed through the Slinkies before putting them into
place. The cord and Slinky were attached at one end then stretched tightly and
attached at the other end. The Slinkies were carefully extended and attached at
R

the other end. Finally, the cord was hung on the remaining hooks and the wires
attached with crimps to the fan dipole terminal boards.
“I had a go at making my own balun using a toroid and eight turns of RG58
coaxial cable. It performs as well as my bought one. My Icom IC-703 seems
pretty happy with the 80m Slinky dipole. Signal levels on 80m have risen by
©

about 20dB, compared with my 40m fan dipole - including the noise! The SWR
on 80m varies, but is under 1.3:1 for most of the band. Daytime background
noise levels have been around S5 - 6 and evening reception has been OK with
signals from the UK and Europe getting through the noise,” said Charlie.
Charlie has since taken the antenna down, due to the high noise levels, but
it would be worth trying at your QTH. If you want to use it as a multi-band
antenna I suggest feeding it with open wire or 300Ω balanced feeder.

47
Stealth Antennas

Larry, W4SAT, says that in a test on a state-wide net, a 30ft 80m Slinky
dipole at 20ft received signal reports on average 0.5 – 1.5 S-units lower than a
Windom at 35ft. He say that compared with a Hustler mobile whip, its
performance and bandwidth were outstanding.
One word of warning - the coils will corrode if left outdoors for more than
a few weeks. This means that the Slinky is really best suited to indoor use. If
you wish to put your Slinky antenna outside on a more-or-less permanent basis,
you could solder all the connections and then spray paint the whole antenna.

12
Many Slinky users report that this 80m antenna is not the best in the world,
but it will get you on the air and should cost less than £20 so is worth a try.
There is even a commercial version of the Slinky antenna in the US. Called the
CliffDweller II antenna [2] it is said to be the “world’s most popular limited
space HF antenna - indoors and outdoors” – and is used in 84 countries. It is
just 10in wide and fits easily into a suitcase for portable use while traveling, or

20
into a backpack for camping. It packs a full 130ft of pre-coiled wire (a half
wavelength on 80m!) into its small footprint and covers all HF bands from 6 to
80m with any standard HF antenna tuner, and handles the full power range of
QRP to 100 watts.

HORIZONTAL LOOP (SKYWIRE) ANTENNA

The horizontal loop antenna should not be confused with the magnetic loop.
B
The one I am about to describe is usually at least one full wavelength long at its
lowest frequency of operation and can be mounted horizontally by tacking the
wire to the loft rafters using a staple gun – just like the dipole. Its current
SG

distribution can be seen in Fig 4.6.

Unlike a dipole, which is resonant on its fundamental frequency and odd
multiples thereof, the loop is resonant on its fundamental and even multiple
frequencies. Therefore, a 40m (7MHz) full-wave loop would contain about
136ft (40.23m) of wire and would also be resonant on 14MHz and 28MHz.
To make your loop use the formula: Length
(in feet) = 1005 divided by frequency (in MHz).
Then subtract 5% of the total full wavelength if
R

you are using insulated wire, due to its slightly

lower velocity factor. Example: For a 40m loop,
1005 divided by 7 (lowest 40-metre frequency
in MHz) x 95% = 136.4 feet.
To calculate the size in metres use the formula:
©

Length (in metres) = 306.4 divided by frequency

Fig 4.6: In this MMANA-GAL simulation you
can see the current distribution of a 40m
full-wave horizontal loop.
(in MHz). Also use the 95% factor if using
insulated wire.
You may struggle to fit a full-wave loop in
for 40m, but the trick is to put up as big a loop as
you can and not worry too much about its
actual size.

48
 6
Over-the-roof stealth antennas

12
THE TRADITIONAL WAY of mounting a central support for wire antennas
over your roof is to fit a short pole, either to your chimney or to a bracket on the
end of your house. This is fine and works well – you can either do it yourself or
get a TV aerial contractor to do it for you. If you also fit a small pulley and cord
you can haul different antennas up any time you wish, although it does start to
look a little like a flagpole at that point.

20
But what if you want to remain stealthy - can you lie the antenna wires
directly on to the roof? The answer is yes you can, and although it isn’t ideal it
does work. You will lose a decibel or two but, as you will have gathered, this
book is about getting you on the air at all costs and that is a small price to pay.
I have a W3EDP 85ft end-fed wire over one side of my roof and an off-
centre fed dipole (OCFD) on the other. Sometimes one works better than the
other. As I am writing this I am talking to George, W4UWC, in Tennessee on
B
15m (21MHz) – he is actually louder on the W3EDP,
which is not bad for a £5 antenna.
Having whetted your appetite what can you do?
The first message has to be, if you have any
SG

electrical cables anywhere near your house forget this

right away – it is just too dangerous. Either go for an
internal antenna or fit a vertical in the garden.
If you are going to use this method make sure you
use insulated wire. This is easier to pull over and offers
a degree of insulation from the wet roof. How stealthy
you want your antennas will determine the wire
thickness. Most black or blue covered wire is pretty
R

invisible at a distance, but you will need ultra thin

wire if you really don’t want people to see it. But
then it has a habit of breaking, so it is a
compromise really.
Assuming that you don’t have any cabling we can
©

go ahead. The easiest way to get a dipole or similar

antenna over your roof is with a catapult. I use the
same one that I described in the section on getting
wires over tree branches. The yellow ball is much
safer than using lead weights and will preserve your This 80m OCFD antenna works well,
tiles and windows should your aim be off. It is also even though the antenna wire lies on
easy to find if and when it comes down in the back the roof tiles.

81
Stealth Antennas

garden. The good point about using a tennis ball is that if it goes
over the house but hits the roof it will usually bounce back off
and end up in the back garden. You may need to have a couple of
attempts at getting this right, but it usually works quite well.
I was able to get a line over my latest house on the first attempt.
In fact, I was a little overzealous and managed to fire the tennis
ball into the neighbour ’s garden, from where it was
quickly recovered!

12
Once you have the line over the house go to the back and
move it away from the house – this is so that a) you can see what
you are doing and b) the line doesn’t snag in the guttering.
Now attach your antenna wire. I find it best not to have
insulators on at this point as they can snag in the tiles. Go back
Hold the catapult upside to the front of the house and pull the wire over the house.
down to stop the fishing line

20
If it snags, stop and find out why. This is a lot easier with two
getting tangled up. Note the
tennis ball, which is a lot people but you can do it on your own if you take your time.
safer than using lead What you don’t want to do is get the line caught under a tile.
weights. This isn’t fatal and can usually be recovered by pulling backwards
on the antenna wire. But keep on tugging on the line over the
roof and you could displace a tile.
Once you have the antenna wire over the roof you can attach the coax or
whatever you have and haul the whole thing into position. If you have a typical
B
pitched roof you can usually work out which side you want your feed point to
fall. It is always better not to pull your feedpoint over the roof, as that is more
to snag.
SG

The important thing to remember is that if anything pulls tight just stop and
find out what is wrong.
Fit insulators to the end of your antenna and tie it off to the nearest item. It
is best if these are high, so as to get the antennas as far in the air as you can. If
you only have a back garden and no front garden an end-fed like the W3EDP
design will work well. If you have both a front and back garden a design like
the G5RV, a doublet or the off centre fed dipole will work better.
If you tie the antenna off to a tree do bear in mind that these move in the
R

wind – either leave some slack or make a movable connection, such as a weight
sliding up and down a PVC tube. I use 10.4lb fishing line to tie off my antennas
– it is pretty invisible under most conditions, although sunlight at some angles
can make it shine.
Now let’s look at the pros and cons of each antenna design.
©

THE G5RV REVISITED

I use a G5RV every year during the Jamboree on the Air event and it works
pretty well. The only problem I have found is it is hard to tune on 10m – I
burned out a switch on my ATU as I forgot to lower the power while trying to
get a match.

82
 6. Over-the-roof stealth antennas

12
20
Fig 6.1: The classic G5RV may not be quite as good a multiband antenna as you think.
B
It was only when I moved to my present house that I started to think about
whether a G5RV antenna could work here. After all, the length of 102ft would
fit nicely between the garage at the front and the shed at the rear. Using insulated
SG

wire it could happily sit on the roof as well. It was at this point that I started
modelling it with MMANA to see how it would play. The G5RV (Fig 6.1) would
appear to be a good, cheap ‘over the roof’ stealthy antenna, but is it?
The G5RV has had plenty of coverage in other books so in this piece I want
to concentrate on some of its characteristics that don’t get mentioned very often.
For those not familiar with the antenna it was designed by Louis Varney, G5RV,
and consists of a 102ft (31.1m) dipole top with a 28.5ft (8.5m) centre section
made out of open wire feeder or 300Ω windowed ribbon cable. You then connect
R

your 50Ω coax to the bottom. I say 28.5ft, but in reality this depends on the
velocity factor (VF) of the ribbon cable. Some designs say 34.5ft (10.36m) for
the matching section, while others say that ribbon cable with ‘windows’ has a
velocity factor that will almost be that of open-wire feeder, so its mechanical
length should be 30.6ft (9.3m). The reality is that you should really select this
©

on test or calculate the VF of the cable you intend to use and act accordingly.
You should really fit a choke or ‘ugly’ balun at the base of the matching
section too – about 8 - 10 turns of coax in a 6in coil should do it.
The antenna was originally designed to be one and a half wavelengths long
at 14MHz. I don’t think Louis Varney ever really envisaged it as a multiband
antenna as such, and he certainly didn’t have access to the WARC bands that
we now have. So let’s look at just how good a G5RV is across the bands.

83
Stealth Antennas

The G5RV – a multiband

antenna?
I started with MMANA
and modelled the G5RV in a
flat-top configuration. This
is unlikely to be the way
most people configure theirs
as a stealthy antenna but I

12
wanted to prove a point.
If you model the antenna
with a matching section of
10.36m you find that, yes,
the G5RV does have an SWR
dip at around 14.350MHz so

20
it looks like the antenna was
designed for this band.
Fig 6.2: This computer simulation of a G5RV using MMANA- Having said that, the lowest
GAL shows that the antenna does have a SWR dip on 20m, but
only to about 2:1.
SWR is only about 2:1
(Fig 6.2) so you will still
need an ATU.
So what about the other bands? On 80m (3.5MHz) it dips at about 2.4:1 at
3.8MHz. At the lower end of the band it is a more horrendous 7.5:1. On 40m
B
there is no dip and the SWR is stubbornly above 7:1. It is also a terrible match
on 30m (10MHz) with an SWR greater than 30:1. On 17m (18MHz), once
again it offers a poor SWR – in excess of 30:1. On 15m (21MHz) it redeems
SG

itself a little bit with an SWR of under 2:1 at the low end of the band, rising to
about 5:1 at the top end. On 12m (24MHz) it dips at around 2:1 near 24.950MHz
and on 10m the antenna disappoints again with a very high SWR.
So the conclusions reached from this are:

1. The length of the matching section should be calculated as 10.6m x the

velocity factor of the cable – don’t just assume that it is any particular
length.
R

2. If you use insulated wire I am sure that the 102ft top should be shortened
accordingly – perhaps down to 97 - 98ft.
3. The antenna only offers a reasonable match on parts of the 12m, 15m,
20m and 80m bands. On others it is pretty horrendous. This means that
you are going to have to use an ATU and you will get mismatched line
©

losses on your coax due to the high SWR. If you feed it with a long
enough length of coax the losses on the line will mask the high SWR (it
will look better than the raw calculations).

I can’t really recommend the G5RV as a multiband antenna – I think there

are better alternatives. Having said that, it will work reasonably well on 80m
(3.5MHz) and get you on the band with an antenna length of only 102ft instead

84
 6. Over-the-roof stealth antennas

of the full 132ft normally found with a half-

wave dipole on that band. My experience at Freq SWR
home was that it was easily beaten on HF by 3.5MHz: 1.7:1
a dedicated dipole and the figures show why. 3.6MHz: 2.3:1
But what happens when you erect a G5RV 3.8MHz: 5:1
as an inverted V, which is probably the way 7.0MHz: 2.1:1
you would use one in a stealthy ‘over the roof’ 7.1MHz: 2.0:1
configuration? 10.1MHz: 10.2:1
14.150MHz: 5.6:1

12
The G5RV as an inverted-V 18.150MHz: 3.3:1
I tried the G5RV as an inverted-V at this 21MHz: 5.4:1
QTH and while it fitted the space quite well 21.450MHz: 5.4:1
I was very disappointed. It performed about 24.9MHz: 6.7:1
as well as any other antenna on 80m, but on 28MHz: 5.6:1
29MHz: 3.6:1

20
HF DX it was pretty awful.
I have recordings of a contact with VQ9JC
on the Chagos Islands. He is about S3 - S4 Table 6.1: ‘Real life’ SWR readings obtained
on my indoor dipoles and just vanishes when with inverted-V G5RV fed by 30ft of RG213
you switch to the G5RV. Some might say that coax.
this was not a fair test and that the station
might have been in a null. But the experience was
repeated over and over with other stations – so what
B
was going wrong?
The SWR readings I obtained in real life with the
inverted-V at the end of 30ft of RG213 coax are shown
SG

in Table 6.1.
Given that the antenna does not offer a 50Ω
impedance at the matching point, adding a length of
50Ω coax merely changes the overall impedance you
see at the rig.
I don’t think G5RV ever meant for his antenna to
be used as an inverted-V. What you find if you model
it is that on 20m those nice lobes that you get with a
R

flat-mounted G5RV pretty much vanish when it is

configured as an inverted-V – see Fig 6.3. Also, the
low angle characteristics also vanish, so the DX
capabilities of the antenna change dramatically.
It is a similar story on the other HF bands as well –
©

the antenna’s radiation pattern squashes and it becomes

more omnidirectional, at the expense of the gain that
the flat-top G5RV displays on bands such as 10m.
On 80m (3.5MHz) there is little difference as the
Fig 6.3: Erecting a G5RV as an
antenna is very low to the ground. If anything, it is inverted-V (dark grey plot) tends to
slightly better as an inverted-V as it loses some of the kill its DX performance as this
directional characteristics it has as a flat-top. simulation shows.

85
 8
Let’s get really stealthy

12
SOMETIMES YOU JUST have to admire people’s
imagination and perseverance – these are the people who
will get a signal out against all the odds. These antenna
ideas might not be the best in terms of coupling our RF
to the air, but they work.

20
THE LOOP TUNER AND WINDOW LOOP
I’m not taking any credit for this design. It is based
on the US Army loop tuner design and was inspired by
an article in the G-QRP magazine Sprat. Jim Stirling,
GM3UWX, wrote about his experience of using mini This tiny 21in square antenna made
loops made out of PVC tubing and a small loop tuner out of PVC tubing and wire made
an easy contact into the
that uses a couple of capacitors. I built my own just to
B
Netherlands with just 5W.
try the design and was amazed at the results.
My loop consisted of two turns of thick insulated
copper wire inserted into a diamond shape made out of
SG

22mm white PVC tubing from the local DIY superstore.

The diamond had 21in sides. The loop tuner was made
from another defunct project and consisted of two variable
capacitors of about 300pF each – see Fig 8.1. I also had
a small meter in the box so I inserted a small diode and a
variable resistor in series with the meter and wound the
leads around one of the connections to the loop to pick
up some RF. This allowed me to tune the antenna for
R

maximum current.
The whole thing was put together in about an hour
and I taped the loop to my curtain rail just to try it. I
could easily run 10W without the capacitors flashing over
and found that it would tune on 40m (7MHz) easily, down
©

to an SWR of 1.5:1. If I removed one of the turns in the

loop I found that I could tune 30m (10MHz) instead.
I connected the antenna up to my radio, tuned the loop
for 7.030MHz and dropped the power to 5W. I listened
Fig 8.1: Schematic of the window
around and found that signals on the loop were generally
loop and tuner. You can add
down about 1 - 3 S-points compared with my 40m loft- additional switchable capacitance
mounted dipole and external 80m OCFD. I tentatively for 80m and 160m.

123
Stealth Antennas

put out a CQ call on CW and PA1MAX from

the Netherlands came back to me. Max gave
me a 579 report and we had a quick chat – all
of it solid copy. He was using 100W to a
dipole. Amazing! The thing actually worked.
Jim, GM3UWX, says that you can play
with the size of the loop to get it to work on
other bands. This will depend on having big

12
enough capacitors or adding extra capacitance
in parallel. Table 8.1 shows Jim’s suggestions.
Tuning is not as sharp as it is on a
The tuner consists of just two variable conventional magnetic loop and the antenna
capacitors. The meter is optional. is quite broadband. Using a field strength
meter I also found that you don’t get the nulls

20
off the sides of the loop that you would expect to find.

Band(s) Loop size Number of turns

1.8MHz 26in sides 5
3.5MHz 24in sides 3
7 / 10MHz 26in sides 1
7 / 10 / 14MHz 21in sides 1
B
7 / 10MHz 12in sides 1

Table 8.1: GM3UWX’s suggestions for ‘Window Loop’ size and number of
SG

turns.

So there you are – an antenna for the lower bands that takes up no space at
all and can be hung from a curtain rail when you want to play radio. Its
performance is down on a dipole (not surprisingly), but it will make contacts,
especially using CW or PSK31. Now tell me you don’t have space for antennas!
R

K3MT’S GRASSWIRE ANTENNA

When I first read Mike Toia’s, K3MT, piece on the Grasswire antenna I
checked the calendar to see if it was an April fool joke – it wasn’t! I’ll let him
take up the story. Mike says: “This antenna will not out-perform a Yagi, or a
decent dipole up a half wavelength. Not in gain or signal strength, at least. But
©

it will survive an ice storm, wind storm, and is practically immune to lightning.
And it doesn’t need a large tower or tall support. I deploy one from my hip
pocket at times - the balun to match it is larger than the antenna!
“Put simply, it is an end-fed, long-wire antenna that is laid right on the
grass, hence the name. The original Grasswire used by me in the summer of
1988 was just 204ft of #18 AWG magnet wire laid along the property line,
anywhere from 1in to 6in above the ground. Either a ground rod or optional

124
 8. Let’s get really stealthy

counterpoise wires are also needed

- use one or the other as both are not
needed.” See Fig 8.2.
These antennas are largely
resistive, with values ranging from
150 to 500Ω or so on average
ground. They have been used
successfully on all sorts of soil. One

12
was used with great success by
K3MT/VP9 in Southampton,
Bermuda - the object of nightly pile-
ups on 30m CW for four nights.
Mike says that the sceptic in you
will doubt that such low antennas

20
can work. After all, its image in the Fig 8.2: An antenna that literally lies on the ground?
ground radiates and cancels out all Mike, K3MT, says that it does radiate.
radiation. True - if the ground is
perfect. But nothing is perfect! The Grasswire radiates vertically-polarised
signals off the end of the wire. Extensive monitoring tests have demonstrated
the end-fire nature of the antenna. Mike says that launching a ray at, say, 15 -
20° take-off angle can be useful and that’s what his Grasswire does. It is lossy
in all directions, but least lossy when exciting the ionosphere for a long-haul
B
DX contact. He says that signal reports are not fantastic, but contacts are made
and ham radio is enjoyed! And the best part of this set-up is that his neighbours
never knew that a ham station was on the air.
SG

Mike feeds the antenna through a simple trifilar unun (an unbalanced to
unbalanced impedance transformer), choosing the connections he wants for
2.5:1, 4:1 or 9:1 ratios (see Fig 8.3). It is basically a wide-band, three-winding
autotransformer. Impedance ratios are as shown on the drawing. Generally it is
necessary to connect the coax to
either A2/B1 or B2/C1, and the
antenna to B2/C1 or to C2. This may
change from one band to another,
R

and usually does.

Mike has also experimented with
laying a Windom antenna on the
ground. He says that it also becomes
directional in the direction of the
©

longest end. In both of these

examples you will need to use
an ATU.
Mike has written a book, K3MT’s
HF Antenna Topics [1], with a
number of different antenna designs,
including the Grasswire. Fig 8.3: The wiring for the Grasswire matching unit.

125
Stealth Antennas

METAL FOIL ANTENNAS

You can make HF antennas out of cooking foil, but you will need quite a lot.
Aluminium foil isn’t very strong so this is a strictly indoor solution. It is also
impossible to solder, so you are going to have to use crocodile clips or bolts
and washers to get a good connection. It is relatively easy to make a foil antenna
for 2m (145MHz) or 70cm (430MHz) – a half-wave dipole using foil will only
take a few minutes.
You can also buy self-adhesive copper foil which is used to screen enclosures,

12
such as guitar amplifiers. This is more rugged than aluminium and would work
well if you wanted to create a window antenna.
Larger antennas will need more foil and more time, but you should be able
to make a decent half-wave dipole for 10m with little effort.
Now, if you are really clever and handy with the kitchen scissors you can
make a multi-band dipole that would work from, say, 10 - 20m: five bands in

20
total. The secret is to cut the foil at
an angle so that the lowest edge
measures a half wave at 10m and
the top measures a half wave at
20m, as shown in Fig 8.4. The RF
will see a high impedance along
the foil strip at anything other than
its operating frequency, and will so
B
effectively ignore the parts of the
strip that it ‘doesn’t like’.
Will it work? Yes, but to be
SG

Fig 8.4: A multiband dipole made out of simple aluminium honest it might be easier to create
cooking foil. a series of five parallel-fed dipoles!

N5ESE’S NOTEBOOK ANTENNA

Monty Northrup, N5ESE, came up with a portable indoor antenna solution
that is ideal for people on the move or who have no room for a permanent
installation. And when it is not in
R

use it just packs away into its own

little 1in thick three-ring binder.
Neat, eh?
Monty takes up the story: “In
the Autumn 1990 edition of Sprat
©

(Issue 64), the journal of the G-

N5ESE’s Notebook antenna uses zig-zag loading.
QRP Club, Gus Taylor, G8PG,
expanding on material presented
by G2MQ, described a 12ft, seven-
band wire doublet. In the article,
he suggested that one could raise
the efficiency of a short antenna

126
 8. Let’s get really stealthy

by using the entire (1/4-wave)

length of wire on each leg, but
forming the ends into a ‘non-
inductive’ end-loaded assembly.
[Editor’s note: This is the same
technique used for the zig-zag loft-
mounted dipole, which was inspired
by the same article!] He claimed

12
that such a winding had been found
to increase the radiation resistance
of a short antenna. And that implies
higher antenna efficiency. Using
these thoughts as the foundation for
The zig-zag loading elements are made from self-adhesive
an antenna design, I endeavoured copper tape.

20
to come up with something both
practical and usable for operating QRP from a hotel room.
“Whips have been used, but are notoriously inefficient, and certainly won’t
fit in my suitcase. Wire loops have also been tried, and are either hard to tune or
very inefficient when less than a full-wave long. Magnetic loops are very, very
efficient, but are hard to fabricate, expensive commercially, and cumbersome
to transport. I wanted an antenna that was very portable (i.e. fit in my briefcase),
easy to set up and take down, and reasonably efficient (or at least, relatively so,
B
compared to other equally portable antennas). The Notebook Antenna is the
result of my efforts.
“Some time ago, I found that hobby stores carry adhesive-backed copper-
SG

tape. The 1/4 inch wide tape is approximately equivalent to AWG 25 wire (in
cross-section), and two in parallel equal about AWG 22. This would be quite
useable (and believe it or not, quite possible to solder).
“My idea was to use an 8.5in x
11in (US letter-sized) transparency,
and lay the tape down, zig-zagging
on both sides in parallel (Fig 8.5). I
made two, of course (one for each
R

leg of the doublet) and punched

holes for a three-ring binder. The
transparency would easily tear if
excess force was applied, so I
placed an eyelet on the top inside
©

corner (the kind found in cloth

stores) and threaded support rope
and antenna wire into this eyelet.
“The support ‘rope’, a small
diameter nylon string, passed
through the transparency’s three- Fig 8.5: Detail of the Notebook antenna zig-zag
ring binder holes, to keep it in place, construction.

127
 10
Avoiding interference and EMC issues

12
IF YOU ARE A radio amateur, sooner or later you are going to come up against
EMC issues. EMC stands for Electromagnetic Compatibility, although I think
it should really be called EMI (for ‘Incompatibility’)! EMC really breaks down
into three main areas:

* Breakthrough

20
Interference to neighbouring electronic and radio equipment caused by
the relatively high field strength of the amateur transmission.

* Interference caused by spurious emissions

This is where the amateur station causes interference (usually to radio or
TV) by generating unwanted emissions.

* Interference to amateur reception

B
This is generally called radio frequency interference or RFI.

If you use outside antennas and reasonable power levels you are unlikely to
SG

experience any more EMC problems than any other ham. But if you use indoor
or loft-mounted antennas, or antennas in close proximity to your house, you
are more likely to suffer problems
– even with relatively low power
levels.
One again, both the RSGB and
ARRL have sections on their
websites devoted to EMC issues
R

and I recommend that you

visit them.

INTERFERENCE BEING
©

CAUSED BY YOU
The biggest problem with
stealth or hidden antennas is their
relative proximity to household
wiring and domestic equipment. Freezing, blocking or a lack of signal are all possible
With electromagnetic fields symptoms of RF interference to a digital TV or set-top
varying according to the inverse box.

161
Stealth Antennas

square law you can see that halving the

distance from your antenna to a device such
as a TV results in the field strength going up
by a factor of four. Put another way, using
50W to an indoor loft-mounted dipole may
have the same effect as someone running
400W to an outdoor antenna.
So what can you do about any potential

12
interference problems?
Firstly, keep your antennas as far away
from household wiring and domestic devices,
such as TVs, hi-fi equipment, telephones etc.
If possible keep them away from your
neighbours too.

20
Secondly, if you are causing interference
to you or anyone else, stop transmitting – at
least until you can determine what the extent
of the interference is and what is causing it.
Check your own station to make sure that
it is wired correctly, that all PL259 plugs are
securely tightened and that there are no
breaks in your coax or other antenna cabling.
B
I have seen loose PL259 plugs on the back
of ATUs cause TVI and a break in a G5RV
antenna, where the twin feeder was joined
SG

Make sure that all your antenna connections

to the coax, that was arcing on transmit.
are tight. A loose PL259 can cause interference.
If possible make sure that your transmitter
is working properly and not
generating unwanted spurious
emissions. There is usually an
expert in your local club who
can check this.
If the interference is caused
R

by spurious emissions or
harmonics using an ATU can
help as it will attenuate out of
band and unwanted signals.
Certain types of antennas are
©

better than others too –

magnetic loop antennas, for
example, are very good at only
radiating the frequency upon
which you are operating.
Wrapping your TV antenna lead through a ferrite ring might In the UK keeping an
help to eliminate interference. Or try a high-pass filter. amateur radio station log is no

162
 10. Avoiding interference and EMC issues

longer compulsory, but it is useful to have a

record of when and where you have been
transmitting. This helps you and your
neighbours decide if you are responsible for
any interference and, if you are, what band(s)
and / or antenna(s) were responsible.
The first action you can take if you are
found to be causing interference is to try to

12
move the antenna away from the
affected item.
I found that I was causing interference to
my main television while using 2m FM, even
though I was only running about 5W. The Some cheap computer speakers are notoriously
digital picture would freeze as I transmitted. bad at picking up RF.

20
I found that my moving the loft-mounted
vertical antenna just six feet away did the trick. I can now run 25 - 40W with no
problems, although the problem shows itself again at higher levels (which I
don’t run). If the problem still persists don’t presume that it is your ‘fault’. It
could be that the TV antenna connections have deteriorated or the cable has
broken. If all else fails, a high-pass TVI filter can be fitted into the back of the
TV set. These are available from most good amateur radio retailers or the RSGB.
Breakthrough on to hi-fi units can usually be cured by winding the
B
loudspeaker wires and mains leads on to ferrite rings – as close to the device
as possible.
Some cheap computer speakers are notoriously
SG

bad for breakthrough and I had one pair that resisted

all attempts at silencing them. I borrowed another
pair which showed no signs of breakthrough
whatsoever, so replaced them with the same make.
If a telephone is sold by BT, and suffers RF
breakthrough while under warranty, the customer
can return it to the point of sale. In this case, BT
retail outlets will, if possible, replace such a
R

telephone with another model offering higher RF

immunity. Alternatively, they may supply a ‘plug-
in’ RFI filter free of charge if appropriate. If a
telephone was sold by BT, but is out of warranty
and is not covered by a maintenance contract, there
©

is a standard charge for the sale of a ‘Freelance’

plug-in RFI filter, LJU 10/14A, BT Item Code
877596. These are sold by BT PhoneShops for less
than £10 but may not be effective in all cases.
If you find you are causing interference to more
than one device in your house the chances are that Some alarm PIR detectors are also prone
you could be injecting RF into the mains wiring. If to being triggered by stray RF.

163
Stealth Antennas

so, reduce your power or relocate your antenna. Wrapping every mains lead in
the house around a ferrite may seem to make sense, but what about
your neighbours?
Interference to burglar alarms is also possible, but the good news is that the
RSGB’s EMC Committee has never known a case of alarm RF triggering that
could not be cured by fitting RF-immune PIRs or occasionally a more immune
control panel. If your transmissions set off the neighbour’s alarm system, it is
advisable to tell them as soon as possible, otherwise that they may be charged

12
for a visit by the installer or maintenance engineer who may find no fault. If the
system is centrally monitored, the monitoring service could be withdrawn if
there are too many false alarms.
Some installers have come across RF triggering before (not necessarily from
amateur transmissions) and may realise the cause if they see your aerials (if
visible). Others claim that it has never happened to one of their installations

20
before and assume that it must be the radio amateur’s fault - which is isn’t.
If the installer does not have sufficient technical knowledge to deal with the
problem, you will need to give some technical advice otherwise they may waste
time trying things which are unlikely to work. Again, the RSGB has a technical
document that you can download at www.rsgb.org.
If you find that you are killing your broadband Internet connection when
using 80m the solution may be to reduce power and / or move the antenna
further away form the telephone points. If that doesn’t work it is possible to
B
remove the ring wire from the master socket. The ring wire induces an imbalance
in the phone wiring and removing mine cured the problem once and for all. It
has no effect on modern telephones and the ring wire is a hang over from days
SG

of old. If you have a BT NTE5 Master socket with a removable bottom half,
instructions for removing this wire can be found on the Internet, but if in doubt
call in a professional.
If you cannot resolve a persistent case of interference your first stop might
be another local ham with more experience.
Following a change of procedure in mid-2010, the BBC is now responsible
for investigating complaints of interference to domestic radio and television.
The Ofcom [1] website has more detail, but the BBC has an interactive diagnostic
R

website [2] where you answer questions and will be presented with guidance
on the possible causes of the problem you’re experiencing and advice on what
you could do.
This should take up to 10 minutes to complete. If the guidance and advice
don’t help, you are then given the option to proceed through a webform and
©

send the BBC an e-mail. They will then investigate and, if they believe you are
suffering from an interference problem, may contact you for further information
to help resolve the problem. If, following the investigation by the BBC, there is
evidence of interference caused by something outside your control and which
is unlawful, the BBC may refer your case back to Ofcom for possible
enforcement action.
Ofcom does not currently investigate problems with cable television or baby

164
 10. Avoiding interference and EMC issues

alarms, nor any equipment that is not intended to receive radio signals such as
hi-fi systems, computer speakers or telephones.

INTERFERENCE BEING CAUSED TO YOU

Increasingly nowadays this is getting to be a major problem. Years ago,
amateurs only had to worry about noisy electric motors and car ignition systems,
but the rise in microcomputer-controlled circuitry and switched-mode power

12
supplies has resulted in us living in a veritable fog of electrical noise.
Amateur Radio is an ‘unprotected service’ in the UK, which means that
radio amateurs do not have a right to interference-free reception. Radio services
such as emergency services, Private Business Radio (PBR, formerly PMR) and
broadcasting are examples of ‘protected’ services whose users can ask Ofcom
to investigate any interference. For protected services, a minimum usable signal

20
level is defined but radio amateurs often receive weak signals which are only
just detectable and may therefore suffer interference from sources which would
not affect other services.
If there is interference to amateur bands, it is worth checking whether it also
affects the UHF TV band or the 88 - 108MHz FM broadcast band, particularly
classical music stations in stereo. If it does affect a TV or FM broadcast station,
which is intended to serve your area and you are using an adequate outdoor TV
or FM aerial, go to the BBC website [2], click on the “reception problems tool”
B
link at the top of the page and complete the interactive web form. After answering
a series of questions the site will offer suggestions as what could be causing the
problem. Otherwise you will be invited to submit an e-mail to the BBC for
SG

further investigation.
It is worth keeping a log of exactly when the RFI occurs as this can give a
clue to the possible source. Tuning across the affected band or bands can also
give some clues about the source of the interference. Here are some common
sources of interference:

Television line timebase harmonics

The line timebase frequency of 625-line television systems in the UK is
R

15.625kHz. Harmonics may be heard as narrow band signals on multiples of

this frequency, for example, 3500.000kHz, 3515.625kHz, 3531.25kHz, etc. As
the line frequency is 1MHz divided by 64, harmonics are found on multiples of
125kHz. If the TV is receiving an off-air programme, the harmonic will usually
have a sound which changes with picture content when heard on an SSB or
©

CW receiver.
To prove that a TV set is the source, try watching another TV set (with low
RFI!) and select different channels until you find one where changes in the
picture coincide with changes in the sound heard on the radio.
Sometimes a braid breaker filter fitted in the antenna lead can help reduce
timebase harmonics as it prevents them being re-radiated by the TV antenna
and coax. It is worth trying.

165
 Index

10FM, 19-20, 44 inverted-V, 12, 38-39, 85-86

2W0SAK, Simon Poyser, 150 Isotron, 8-10, 118,
AC9TS, Tom Sedlack, 120 146-150
AM, 20 ‘Joystick’, 13-14

12
antenna analyser, 10, 43, 91-94, loft / attic antennas, 3, 5, 18, 19, 27-28,
116-117, 132, 150 29-36, 37-74
antenna types magnetic loops, 4, 5-7, 7-8, 15, 32,
1.8MHz magnetic loop, 5-7 40, 42, 50-63, 80,
‘AlexLoop SML 7-30’ 152 134-135, 152, 158, 159
‘Bird House’ antenna, 133-135 Marconi antenna, 10

20
Capco magnetic loop, 40, 42, 51 metal foil, 126
‘Carolina Windom’, 87-88 MFJ antennas (others), 159-160
carpet loop, 135 MFJ magnetic loops, 4-5, 32, 54-57, 159
‘CliffDweller II’ 48 Miracle Whip, 152-153
collinear, 19 Moonraker HF verticals, 157
Crossed Field, 64 notebook antenna, 126-128
delta loop, 70-72, 73, 141 OCFD, see off-centre fed
B
dipoles, 37-38, 40-42 dipole
Distributed Capacitance Twisted Loop, off-centre fed dipole (OCFD), 12, 75, 80, 81,
128-130 87-91, 142-143, 151
DL7PE-VicroVert, 118-120 Par Electronics End-Fedz, 151-152
SG

doublet, 87, 142-143 parallel-fed dipoles, 5, 40-42, 42-44

EFHW, see End-Fed Pro Antennas DMV Pro, 139-141
Half-Wave Pro Antennas I-PRO, 141-143
EH antenna, 8, 63-70 quad, 73
end-fed half-wave (EFHW), quarter-wave vertical, 79, 99-105, 106, 108,
78, 80, 115-117 116, 137
fan dipole, see parallel-fed rain gutter antennas, 10-12, 80
R

dipoles ‘RoomCap’, 121-122

fence-top antenna, 135-136 rotary washing line antenna, 136-137
G4TPH magnetic loop antennas, 158 Rybakov, 78, 112-115
G5RV, 44, 82-87 Sandpiper antennas, 153-154
G8JNJ ‘Fat Max’ ® antenna, 137-138 Sigma-5, 155
‘Grasswire’, 124-125 skywire, see horizontal loop
©

‘Hairspray Can’, 121 ‘Slim Jim’, 19

halo, 73 ‘Slinky’ dipole, 4, 46-48
‘Hamstick’, 12 small tuned loop (STL), see magnetic loops
horizontal loop, 4, 48-50 SRC X65 multi 65ft end-fed, 150-151
Hustler 5BTV / 6BTV, 75, 105 Super Antennas MP1, 155-156
inverted-L, 10, 80, 110-112, TAK-tenna, 143-146
142-143, 150 Tarheel Screwdriver, 154-155

201
Stealth Antennas

trap dipole, 30, 42, 91-97, G3LDI, Roger Cooke, 17

179-180, 182 G3LDO, Peter Dodd, 4, 7, 51
trap vertical, 103-105, 157 G3LHZ, Prof Mike Underhill, 51
Ventenna HFp-Vertical, 156-157 G3PLX, Peter Martinez, 17
vertical dipole, 141-143, 155 G3VA, Pat Hawker, 51
W3DZZ trap dipole, 42, 97-98 G3YWX, Ian Poole, 4,
W3EDP end-fed wire, 2, 40, 42, 44, 75, 81, G4FGQ, Reg Edwards, 15, 57-60
105-108, 148-149 G4FON, Ray Goff, 17

12
W5ALT indoor vertical, 130-131 G4GTW, Carl Kidd, 139-143
W5ALT travel antenna, 132-133 G4ILO, Julian Moss, 4-5
Watson ‘80plus2’, 4-5, G4KKI, Bill Stevenson, 7-8
Windom, see Off-Centre G4OGP, Tony Johnston, 51
Fed Dipole G4TPH, Tom Brockman, 158
window loop, 123-124 G6XN, Les Moxon, 4,

20
wire beams, 70-72 G8JNJ, Martin Ehrenfried, 136-138
ZS6BKW, 86-87 G8SDU, Bob Clayton, 69-70
artificial earth, 108 GM0HKS, Will Beattie, 61-63
ATU, 35-36, 49, 84, 109, GM3UWX, Jim Stirling, 123-124
112, 140, 150-151 GQRP Club, 28, 123, 126
balun, 29, 33-35, 43, 49, 83, grid dip oscillator (GDO), 91-93
87-88, 90-91, 116, Hately, Maurice, 64
119, 121, 140, 160 HB9ABX, Felix Meyer, 121-122
B
BBC, 164-165 I1ARZ, Roberto Craighero, 7, 51
Bilal, Ralph, 146 interference, see EMC
breakthrough, 161, 163 K3MT, Mike Toia, 124-125
SG

catapult, 24, 75-76, 81-82 K6NO, Bill Petlowany, 136, 143

coaxial cable (coax), 33-36, 38, 49, 54, 62, K7MEM, Martin Meserve, 45
68, 84, 96-97, Koch Morse training program, 17
112-113, 150, LDG Z-11 auto-ATU, 49, 140
177-180 loading coil(s), 42, 44-46, 130-131,
counterpoise, 105-108, 119, 121 136-137, 141, 160
CW, see Morse code loop tuner, 8, 123-124, 135, 159
detuning / induction effects, 31-32 M0WYM, Charlie Ivermee, 42-44, 47
R

DG9MAQ, Raimund Jakob, 119-120 magnetic loop tuner, 8

DL7AHW, Arthur Wenzel, 121 MFJ-259, see antenna analyser
DL7PE, Juergen Schaefer, 118-119 Miracle Antenna (Company), 152-153
EMC, 161-176 MMANA-GAL program, 48, 50, 71, 83-84, 86,
feedlines, 35 95, 97, 105-106, 111,
©

ferrites, 35, 40 133, 179, 181-183

fibreglass fishing poles, 77-78, 99, 153 Morse code (CW), 16-17
flagpole, 79-80 N5ESE, Monty Northrup, 126-129
FM, 19 N8ZYA, John Smithson, 8-10, 147
Force 12, 155 Near Vertical Incidence Skywave
G0GSF, Brian Austin, 86 (NVIS), 15, 42, 99, 136
G3FEW, Ted Rule, 97 Ofcom, 164, 174-176

202
 Index

open wire feeder, 6, 38, 47, 80, 83, 87, W4OP, Dale Parfitt, 152
97, 135-136, 180-182 W4RNL, L B Cebik, 86-87
overhead power lines, 21-22 W5ALT, Walt Fair, 130-133
Petlowany loading coils, 136 W5QJR, Ted Hart, 6, 51, 64-66
Power Line Adaptors / Tele- W8BNL, Tom Garrisi, 12-13
communications (PLA / PLT), 170, 176 W8GZ, Loren G Windom, 87
PSK31, 17-18 W8JI, Charles Rauch, 97
PY1AHD, Alex Grimberg, 152 WA2TAK, Stephen Tetorka, 143-144

12
radials, 29, 99-103, WA6QBU, Jim McLelland, 128
Radio Amateur Old Timers’ working at height, 23-24
Association (RAOTA), 97 working in the loft / attic, 23
radio frequency interference WSPR, 58-59, 68-69
(RFI), 161, 163, 165-175 zig-zag (non-inductive) loading, 40-42
RF burns, 25 ZS6BKW, Brian Austin, 86

20
RF choke, see balun
RFI, see radio frequency
interference
RF safety, 25-28
roof / tile absorption, 30-31
RSGB, 4, 16-17, 25-26, 161-
164, 170, 174-176
RTTY, 20
B
safety, 21-28
Sandpiper Aerial Technology, 153-154
SGC auto-tuner, 4, 11-12
SG

Snowdonia Radio Company, 150

Sporadic-E, 5, 20, 44
SSB, 18-19
SWR analyser, see antenna analyser
television interference (TVI), 163
toroid, 47, 90-91, 109-110,
113, 115-116, 119, 125
traps, 41-42, 91-98, 103-105
R

trees, 76-77
‘ugly’ balun, see balun
unun, 108-113, 125, 142-143,
150-151
vacuum variable capacitor, 6, 53, 61-62
©

VE6YP, Tony Field, 96

VHF / UHF, 19, 72-74
VK4AMZ, Mike Zingelmann, 5-7
W0ES, Earl Schlenk, 133-135
W0MG, Jack Ciaccia, 10-12
W2FMI, Jerry Sevick, 90, 109, 112
W3DZZ, C L Buchanan, 98

203